And on to The Netherlands! This was a part of the world tour I’ve been really looking forward to. Because A) JonTy (our sales rep here) is such good company and B) this is our best territory in the world for Bespoke sales per Optician’s store.

I had a regrettable 6:55am flight but at just 40 minutes flying time, I was in Amsterdam and on the road with Jon before you could say Gouda.

So the first two shops I visited were both fantastic accounts, but neither my best selling. I had told Jon not to take me to only the best, I also wanted to see ones not working, so I could learn something.

Again, the same story, training training training. I can now sadly see that if you don’t come to design school, you will not do Tom Davies Bespoke successfully. OK, two hours later in Boddeus, two more staff booked to Design School and a decision that they will also start designing their own collections from my range and we moved on to the next shop (complete with complimentary umbrellas)!

The next shop, a half hour away was quite simply, the best Opticians I’ve ever been in on this world tour and one of the nicest I’ve been in, in my career. This was for two reasons: 1.The architecture. The 500 year old building mixed with modern steal and sheet glass. Amazing. 2. The passion and excitement which the Optician, Annette, showed as she took me round the store and showed off her pride and joy. The best practices in the world have a heart and soul, which the customers pick up on, and this is what I loved. I just needed to work out why they were not our best account, when I’d really like them to be.

One guess. Training.

At design school we tell customers the technical side of Bespoke, but we are now also talking about the way to sell it, how to handle a customer and how to manage their expectations. Another two booked in for October!

A few whirlwind meet and greets with some of our better opticians, show off some prototypes, ask their advice on some of my new ideas and a “service station cheese sandwich” we arrived at one of my favourite opticians. Deventer Brillen Centrale is one of our best accounts in the world and also one of our first. I’ve really enjoyed watching them progress with the brand and have been impressed with the innovation they have shown with their design work. So much so that some of Pim’s creations have found their way in to my collection.

I think they were pretty pleased with me as well, since they took me out to dinner and presented me with this gift.  This is what makes it worth coming to work for!

On to the next day. Lots more meet and greets, again a few new lessons learnt. I asked a thousand questions during the day and also passed on my learnings from my World Tour. What I have learnt about Tom Davies will take up an entire week’s blog entry (and I will write a summary next week) but I passed on what I could, whilst soaking up more feedback.

There will be some interesting changes in September!!!!!!

The good host that JonTy TonnTy is, he took me sightseeing (in the few seconds between the mega account tour). This is the Town Hall he married in and this is his local cheese shop (he lives in Gouda). One feels one needs to pass on a little of the local culture in one’s blog.

Finally, I’m at the airport back to London. I had an interview for a magazine over dinner and as usual, I got rather too carried away jibberjabbering about Bespoke spectacles. I missed my flight. Only I didn’t really. Have you EVER been happy for a two hour flight delay???????????????????

Home for my boy’s third birthday in the morning... then off to Switzerland for the last leg of the tour on Monday.